Anyone got a dust rag? Been ages and ages since I used this account.

However I enjoy menu planning and its time to get back to it. Saves money.. easier to know whats there for dinner at each meal. Yes most recipes are from one site. I really like her site and the meals are generally easy to put together.

Sunday - Halibut and Shellfish Soup
               Home made bread
               tossed salad
http://www.skinnytaste.com/…/halibut-and-shellfish-soup.html

Monday - Buffalo Chicken and Bean Chili
                leftover homemade bread
                tossed salad
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2014/09/buffalo-chicken-and-bean-chili.html

Tuesday - Fish Tacos
                tossed salad

Wednesday - Grilled Stone Fruit Salad
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2013/08/grilled-stone-fruit-salad-with-honey.html

Thursday - Fish fillets
                  Leftover salad from Wednesday

Friday - Shakshuka
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014721-shakshuka-with-feta

Saturday - Omelets
                  tossed salad

This week will have a 'loose' meal plan. DH wants to go to his parents or have them come up to support them. Yesterday they went out in the morning and when they came back Mia, their miniature pincher, was lying on the porch. She had passed away during the short time they were out.

In addition to that, my mom has been at the bedside in ICU of her longtime companion. John has been in a nursing home for several months, and took a terrible turn for the worse the other night. His passing is inevitable, and its just a waiting game right now. Although she's stayed in the relationship more from duty (love passed a long time ago) she will of course still grieve and I need to be there for her. I am so grateful that our move occurred when it did as I am able to care for her dog and cats with ease and its one responsibility off her shoulders. While I was in driving distance before, a 6 minute drive makes it much easier then a 30min drive.

With all that said - here's this weeks dinner menu plan:

Sunday - Chicken and dumplings - one of our cool weather favorites!
Monday - moo shu pork
Tuesday - simple fried chicken
Wednesday - Soup and sandwiches, nothing fancy
Thursday - grilled steak, baked potatoes, mixed veggies  - recipe is for pork, but I'm using it for beef
Friday - dinner out somewhere per Joe's request
Saturday - BBQ with the new neighbors at our place, I think I'll do just hot dogs and these burgers, one neighbor is bringing pasta salad, not sure about the others.. we'll make do with whatever shows up, lol.. and worse comes to worse.. the grocery store is 2 min away, lol. May also make my favorite mac and cheese recipe for the kids as there will be 5 or 6 ( possibly 8 or 9) here as well, lol.

I am starving today, lol.

My breakfast was a lovely nutritional shake this morning, that held me over till about 10:45am. Then I started to get very hungry... a fact that was not helped when my coworker came into my office and started discussing hot fudge sundaes... ugh. Then I started having daydreams about Arby's roast beef sandwiches .. with double meat.

that should give you a good idea of how hungry I was, lol.

Over the years with Joe I have often had debates with him over the amount of money he spends on take-out. Since August was so expensive for us, I'm trying to limit my lunch budget to $0, until at least the next payday. Today that meant my lowly can of chicken noodle soup in the kitchen cabinet.

Sigh. Egg noodles don't have all that much substance when you're really hungry, lol.

However being a good girl, I dutifully ate (sucked down every last noodle) and decided to distract myself with the computer (not working all that great) and realized that I don't focus enough on lunch menu planning. I had started to do a bento box style lunch many many months ago, but fell off the bento wagon from life distracting me too much. Oddly enough I also recently found an article on bento box style lunches for kids and school and that got me thinking about it again, especially today with my simple can of soup, lol.

My work week is over until next Tuesday ( or will be at 5pm!).  So here's a plan for next week. These are shorter then my weekly dinner plans due to my odd schedule. Ideally I'd like to bring for lunch, what Joe and JP are eating at home... but Joe is unpredictable. I'm also toying with the idea of going home for lunch on the 2 days I'd need to pack a lunch and then we can eat a healthy lunch as a family. For next week I'm going to attempt to plan around what I know I have at home.

Tuesday - staff meeting - lunch provided by offfice
Wednesday -tuna melt on a wrap, grapes, oreo cookies

Friday - probably the same thing as I have lots of tuna in stock, lol. I'm not a big fan of most tuna.. but it works in a pinch.

I really want to invest in 2 sets of bento box, one for myself and one for JP. That way I know he's eating a somewhat balanced meal and the portions are a great size for my picky little sweetheart, lol.  The one's I've been looking at are by LapTop Lunch, but would really like to find something I don't have to order online... and that's a bit less expensive to start. Of course I could just go to a local Target or Walmart and pick up individual containers... but I like the idea of the sets, makes it more appealing. It will be interesting to see if the creative side or the frugal side wins out first, lol.

Oh! here's a nice looking one for kids - I may order this for when JP starts school in 2 years or so..  Goodbyn Lunch Box

Not going into apologies.. just restarting my happy little home blog, lol.

We moved last week into a new apartment. A new, bigger place with a dining room and no carpeted kitchen!!! The new place is great, and the neighbors seem wonderful. Already helped us out with a car issue on a truck we borrowed for the move just because. Peanut doesn't get to roam free anymore and I think she's sad over that, but I also think she and I are going to start going for longer walks down the road.. now that we live on a road with a wide shoulder.

I'm very excited to have a normal looking home that easily accommodates company. We had my IL's over for dinner last weekend, and my mom was supposed to be this weekend.. but was too tired (she still  works overnights). Planning menu's with Sunday dinners is more fun now that I can share meals with friends and family.

This weeks menu is:
Sunday- Mustard Crusted Salmon, wild rice blend, vegetable medley
Monday - Hot dogs, tossed salad, macaroni salad
Tuesday - Spaghetti and Meatballs, tossed salad
Wednesday - grilled chicken salad
Thursday - mu shu pork, steamed veggies
Friday - take out?
Saturday - Luau party!!! Pineapple and shrimp skewers, rum glazed ribs, terriyaki chicken on a stick, cucumber salad, tossed salad, homemade fruit punch

the luau party is because it's our month for a small group get together we started back in april. My gf found an affordable and easy tiki party menu which helped as my original plan was serve grilled pineapple on the burgers, lol.

my shopping list is well planned, although I need to hit up 2 stores to get everything. Its not terrible though as one is near a laundromat ( no more washer and dryer for me, sigh) so I can do laundry and shop at the same time.

Guess a little bit of dust has settled onto my little blog here. In the spirit of spring cleaning and getting back to routines and such I'm dusting it off to once again track menu planning and cost saving tracking.

DH and I have been having a good ole bout of issues stemming from his health and have gotten a little lazy about attention to detail in regards to budgetting groceries and planning meals. Needless to say our grocery spending is once again over what it should be. However I haven't had the heart to see how much and have decided on a clean slate.


Today I had to go grocery shopping. we were basically down to a few cans of soup and cereal in the pantry. It was getting a little desperate for organized, instead of on the fly, shopping. So off I went to 3 stores with a 3 year old. I'm happy to say we survived quite well.. and the only bad thing was a result of me rushing to do things when I got home.. and being exhausted.. and an incident with a large bread knife.,.. a new dvd to open.. and a finger of mine. OOps.. guess thats why they say not to play with knives. All's well except that I am sporting a Diego bandaid on my finger. Bandaids are now on the top of the next shopping list, lol.


Now for the menu. Week of April 25 - May , 2010


Sunday - Gourmet Burgers with a topping of brie and carmelized onions, side of tossed salad
Monday - leftovers - JP will be at grandparents all day and DH will be mooching dinner off of them. I work till 7 and am not cooking a dinner when I get home.
Tuesday -Meatloaf and mashed potatoes with gravy, steamed italian veggies
Wednesday - Tikki Masala (box mix from target to try) -sched is the same as Monday but I'll make this before leaving for work or make it tues afternoon
Thursday - Malaysian fried chicken over rice, haven't made this in ages and have some awesome curry for it
Friday - Meatball parm sandwiches
Saturday - chicken alfredo over linguini

Some weeks I just don't get arounnd to menu planning. For the week of  10/4 - 10/10 I had no plan. Luckily we made out fine thanks to coupons, but it wasn't the healthiest of choices.

Monday and Wednesday were Quizno's subs- Buy 1 get one of same size free.
Tuesday - chicken fried rice
Thursday - chicken cutlets
Friday - sandwiches after grocery shopping
Saturday - spaghetti and meatballs

the Quizno's coupons were a huge savings. $8 on Monday and for some reason $9 on Wed. Works for me, lol

I've been having a really eye opening experience with my coupons and smarter shopping. I now look thru the circulars much more carefully, usually while relaxing and watching TV. Doing this I am starting to stock up on items that we'll use and while using coupons as well.

I added up my savings since I started using the Couponizer... in 2.5/3 weeks of use I have saved $110.  Not bad when my first goal was to have the couponizer pay for itself at a mere $23.70, lol. What I have also noticed though is that we are not doing a full grocery shopping every week. Now we have enough to go every other week, with just a brief trip during the week for little things. Generally not more then $10.00. I'll have to start tracking that so I know the savings there as well.I'm also starting to stockpile a 3 or 4 month supply of items so that I do not have to buy them if not on sale. we have enough laundry detergent for 5 months I think, lol.

This morning I was reading a news report where food prices are once again predicted to rise in 2010. Thats giving me more incentive to be even more diligent with being smarter with grocery costs.

Now to this week's menu... 10/11 - 10/17/2009

Monday -Barber's Chicken Cordon Blue
Tuesday - potato battered cod
Wednesday - Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Thursday - Spaghetti and Meatballs
Friday - Quizno's - coupons good till 10/25
Saturday - chicken parmigian

Sunday - Oriental Shark Steak

Sunday - Stuffed Pepper Casserole
I have a bag of frozen green pepper strips in the freezer. So instead of traditional stuffed peppers, I'll layer the dish and make a casserole out of it. I'll also be using brown rice instead of white and some mashed white beans mixed in with that (Thanks for that idea Dani!)
Monday - Pizza
Tuesday - Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup with fresh baked bread
this will be so easy as I made the chicken noodle soup tonight. I'll freeze a portion and just toss the frozen soup in the crockpot mid day for a nice easy dinner
Wednesday - Leftover night
Thursday - Herb Crusted London Broil with tuscan salad and baked potatoes. Apple Bread for desert with light whipped cream.
This week I cleaned my spice jars and restocked up on fresh herbs at the health food store. 10 varieties of fresh, organic, dried herbs cost me $7.81! Plus I have no big jars lying around with herbs that will go stale.
Friday - Malaysian Fried Chicken and rice 
I'm going to try this in a crockpot, less fat then frying the chicken and Joe can put it on mid day.
Saturday - Spaghetti and meat balls

If anyone is wondering how Joe managed with the hip surgery and the crockpot... he did just fine. He walked out of the surgery with no crutches or cane, fully weight bearing... and managed to avoid lifting the crockpot completely.

My new crockpot has been given a very thorough test run this week. It has made a couple of batches of bbq chicken drumsticks (good for lunches) , a crockpot roasted sticky chicken (too salty, I'd almost leave the salt out), chicken noodle soup, baked ziti and tomorrow it's making the brown rice for the week. It has performed like a champ and my only near miss was the ziti.. but that should have had more sauce anyway.

Joe is going in for surgery again on Wednesday. Not as major as the last time, just to have a compression screw removed that was holding the bones together while he healed. It usually wouldn't come out but it bothers him a lot and he says its like sitting on his keys all day. He thinks he can manage to get the crock pot from the fridge to the counter so that dinner can be cooked when I get home. Wednesday I'll be handling it, Thursday I'm home and hopefully by friday he'll be good to go. Hmmm I may take the crock pot to work with me on Wednesday and let it cook there so it doesn't overcook.


Sunday -  Crock Pot Fried Rice
Monday - Pizza
Tuesday -  London broil with herbed butter
Wednesday - Chinese take out - Joe made an excellent point that we will be out till late with my work sched, and then to pick him up from his parents house after the surgery. If all goes well I'll pick up something before I pick up Joe. Knowing how well he did with the anesthesia the last time, he may not even want to eat more then soup.
Thursday - Slow cooker lasagna & tuscan panzella salad

how about some yummy pics?








I'm also trying something new this week. While on my favorite crock pot blog (www.crockpot365.blogspot.com) I saw a brief mention on bento boxes. If you've never heard of these, they are a Japanese lunch box.  I was directed thru another site to one of the many bento box stores on the web and was enjoying window shopping. In the back of my mind was my boss and a recent business trip she took to Japan. Now my boss is tiny.. 5 feet  and maybe 3 inches tall? and a size 0 I believe. She commented that she felt like a huge giant in Japan. Looking at these little boxes in the store and having that comment rattle in my brain made me think of something. Portion control! In the somewhat typical american eyes I looked at the bento box sets and thought 'but I'll never be full'. Hmmmmm.. Yes i would be full if I do it right. I'm going to try a week of bento box style lunches. Even if I make my heavier main meals, the bento box portions will be controlled. Now of course I enjoy shopping. And of course I want to get a traditional bento box set to start off with. However I also want my new crock pot and what if I don't like the lunches like this? I then figured I'd go to Target and get some small containers to create my own bento box. I have a great insulated lunch tote that will work perfectly.  Lock and Lock containers are wonderful. Again though my frugal, budget conscious  side said wait a minute. I have a good container for an entire meal. The only challenges are that it won't keep sauces from spilling to other  sections if it tips... and well... its a lunch thing for JP and has cartoon animals on the top, lol. It will be perfect to start with. If I like this way of lunches then I'll invest in different containers. The more I thought about this, the more it makes sense for me. I'm going back to at least 80% raw foods (nuts, seeds, grains, fruits and veggies) and cut up fruits and veggies with a dip will work great, slice vegetables thin and put over rice, add some nuts in the tiny containers, etc etc etc. (Keep on the lookout for my newest blog on a raw food lifestyle). I love variety in my meals and sometimes eat too much in order to get that.

Some recipes to try in the future:
Lemon and Herb Crock Pot Roasted Chicken
Steak and Blue Cheese Roll Ups - Joe will hate this... I will love this, lol
crock pot yogurt

I bought my crockpot when we moved into this house. Just about 5 years ago. It's stainless steel, removeable stoneware pot and very dependable. However I think that it tends to cook too fast. I would love a Rival Smart Crock Pot that automatically switches to warm. On Friday I made the chicken and dumplings. I had an auto temperature changer. I call it Joe, lol.  I set up the chicken to start in the morning at 6am and left him a note to turn it down to low as of 11am. I was then going to have him add in the dumplings for another 30-60 minutes and let it cool and place in the fridge. However he spent his day getting our cars inspected. Pretty much a necessity as they were both due in August. He left the house around 8 and got back at about 12 and turned the crock pot to low. I told him when he got back home (he was heading out with the second car) to call me and I'd tell him the trick for easy dumplings. He never called and I left work at 5:30... with the crock pot still going strong on Keep Warm. I got home, flipped it to high, added the dumplings (torn up refrigerated biscuits) and much to my surprise there was still quite a bit of liquid in the crock pot. usually it gets dried out more then expected. I went looking at reviews of the Rival and a Hamilton Beach crock pot and have decided to get the Rival one. It will automatically switch to low and keep foods perfect. If all goes as planned I'll pick it up Tuesday morning and will have it all set to go for a dish I have planned on Wednesday. I think I'll take the other one into work and use it for warm drinks for staff and patients as an occasional treat.

Sunday - Roast Turkey breast, mashed potatoes and gravy, tossed salad, homemade biscuits, Gertrude hawks Caramel/nut and chocolate/m&m covered apples
Monday - Pizza
Tuesday - Sloppy Joes and organic french fries
Wednesday - leftovers
Thursday - French Dip ala Kate - or at least the link is.. thanks Kate!
Friday - Chicken and Dumplings - slow cooker
Saturday - soup and sandwiches

If you've been looking at this blog over the last few days, I apologize for the constant changing look. As you can see I've been trying to find a unique look that works for what this blog is intended to be. I'm not looking  to create a food blog, (or at least not yet, lol) but more of a blog for home management ideas and tricks with menu planning as the base.

In getting back to posting regularly I've been just working on the menu planning. I'm now going to start expanding more with more  recipes to try and their result, home management tips and tricks (as soon as I learn them, lol) and cost savings tricks that work for me. I'm not sure how fast all the additions will be added, but I am going to be working on them. Thanks for reading!

Sunday - Herbed Roast Pork Loin and Potatoes, tossed field green salad with vinaigrette dressing and bluberry buckle (who's coming over for this dinner? lol)
Monday - Pizza
Tuesday - Pork loin leftover sandwiches*
Wednesday - leftovers
Thursday - spaghetti and meatballs (please, please let the humidity and heat be low)
Friday - Chinese take-out

* for some weird reason I can never spell sandwiches right the first time. I always put an extra 'w' in it, lol.

Better late then never. I set the posting time and date for this coming week instead of this past sunday! Ooops :)

You'll notice a definite theme of easy to prepare, no or little heat meals. Its in the 90's with high humidity to boot. I'm melting enough as is and am turning on the stove as little as possible, lol.

Sunday - Popcorn chicken bites (made into spicy buffalo bites for me), tossed salad
Monday - Sausage, Broccoli, and Noodles
- eta this was not nearly as good as it looked. will not make again
Tuesday - Cheese dogs, potato chips and applesauce
Wednesday - my usual leftovers night as I get home with JP after 8pm
Thursday - Sloppy Joes with sliced tomatoes
Friday - sandwiches - ham and a nice smooth and creamy swiss.. simple and yumm
Saturday - tossed salad with sauteed chicken breasts (maybe a grill next year?)

Something different for Saturday as well. We were getting lunch from Panera Bread today and I went to the site to get the menu. I didn't know they had recipes on there and found a recipe:

Asiago Bagel Breakfast Bake

its all made and waiting to bake in the morning. The only down side is that it will take an hour to bake :(




this is how it looked when it came out of the oven...i'll definitely make this again...yummmmm